Horticulture

Friday, August 26, 2016

Alex Lambert's Experience at the US Senior Open

Each year, team members of the HP grounds department volunteer at various tournaments, helping the host site to prepare the course for tournament play. These are great opportunities to engage with others in the industry, see the behind the scenes of tournament preparation and bring back ideas that may help with the operation at HP. Recently, Alex Lambert Ohio International Intern at HP had the opportunity to Volunteer at the US Senior Open at Scioto Country Club below is an account of his experience.....

---------

My first golf tournament experience and what a great place to start, volunteering at the US senior open held at Scioto Country Club in Columbus, Ohio. The week started with anevening meeting with the grounds superintendent Bob Becker, all the staff of Scioto and the volunteers. Everyone received their jobs for the week and out we went for the first evening shift.

I was assigned to mow greens everyday, morning and evening, which was an important job and one that had to have a lot of due care and attention. The week progressed and the course was in prime condition, exactly how the USGA (United States Golf Association) wanted it to be, a hard and challenging course. Volunteering at Scioto gave me a real insight into the amount of work, planning and effort that goes into putting on these huge tournaments. Countless hours of hard work for weeks on end leading up to the tournament.

Tournaments create a pool of volunteers from all backgrounds with varieties of experience. Which makes for great networking opportunities, a huge part of the green keeping business. Whilst my time at Scioto was only a week, I became part of their team and together we put out an amazing course for the world to see.

An experience I will never forget!

Nice Work Alex!

Congrats to Bob Becker and his team at Scioto for a successful tournament!